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Bournemouth N Trak Convention – 2017

As promised in last week’s post, this week will be about the Bournemouth N Trak Convention which was held here in the UK last weekend.

For those who don’t know what N Trak is all about, have a look at my post covering this convention from 2014 which can be found here. I gave a description and showed many shots of the N Trak layout, the same one we used this year.

As usual a real mix of rolling stock and locomotives run on the layouts over the three days as all the participants run their new acquisitions and their tried and tested favorites. For example, below you can see a modern-day UP heritage locomotive and an 1880s 4-4-0 working the yard.

Yosemite Valley Railroad 4-4-0 No.22 waits for a train as other locomotives go about their duties.

Later in the day No. 22 moves some freight cars into the lumber mill.

Although switching the industries is fun the main action on is on the three main lines and we had plenty to see. Union Pacific had a big presence and not just in quantity. Below is a video of a weathered Scale Trains 8500 Gas Turbine running through town.

Not to be outdone a brass 8500 GTEL made by Overland Models was also running the rails, again nicely weathered.

In fact we had several of the new Scale Trains 8500 GTELS on the layout. Here’s another one with a long train of ethanol tankers. Hmm, large turbine exhausts and ethanol tankers, is that a good idea?!

But just as with the real 8500 Turbines, these were replaced and what could be better than the A-B-A set of C-855s from Alco?

But they were short-lived and now we have a pair of EMD SD9043MACs hauling a wind turbine train.

Plenty of other railroads had a good run as well. Below is a Southern Pacific cab forward.

A pair of Santa Fe GP30s with a fast freight.

A pair of Santa Fe FP40s with the ‘Cat train’ delivering Caterpillar machinery.

And a brass set of Milwaukee Road Erie Builts with Hiawatha stream liner.

Switching carried on in the background as you can see by this Pennsylvania S2.

Again the Black Diamonds came with several modules from their large modular collection; this time it was a large grain facility.

This allowed a lot of switching action while the main line remained busy with trains.

A motel was situated at one end of the grain facility, ideal lodgings for rail fans.

As usual the layout was topped and tailed with large looped yards.

There were several other scenic boards in the setup, such as this rustic farmstead.

But my favorite section was the twin bridge across the river.

This also added operational interest to the layout as everything else was a double track main line, except this bridge, so trains had to wait their turn to cross.

And it was at this bridge where I managed to catch some trains on film.

A Western Pacific stream liner slows and runs across the river.

This Micro-Trains collectors’ set of State cars, locomotives and caboose looked very impressive.

My Southern Pacific overnight train made an appearance powered by an A-B-B-A set of F7s.

A lone Santa Fe FP45 pulls a long freight over the river.

An Arizona Eastern Railway trio of locos trundle over the bridge with a mixed freight.

And finally, do you remember that 1880s 4-4-0 from the beginning of the post? Well here it is crossing the river with log, freight and passenger car train.

This convention, although small, is always great fun and I would like to thank the members of the N Trak, the Black Dimonds, Neil’s Engaging Trains and the N scale Architect for making the event happen.

Next week I’ll be back to 3D printing and will have some new couplings to share with you.